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As tradition dictated, I wouldn’t use any magic, only my senses. Proof that no matter where she went, I’d find her. To the Fae of old, it was a rite of passage. I wasn’t much for the old ways, but this was one ritual I could get behind. It made my cock hard to think of the moment I found her. When I laid claim like I had in the city, but with a grander purpose than before.

Tonight was more than the chase.

Tonight was the start of the rest of our lives.

NIKA

It was that night all over again, but something about this was different. I knew it from the moment Lev came swooping into my room demanding that I wear the dress he’d brought and taking it upon himself to do my hair and makeup. He refused to tell me anything. It wasn’t often my friend was secretive, but when he was, it was only ever with me in mind.

But still I couldn’t help but wonder what they had planned, and why it was starting with a chase.

“Run,”the masked assassin ordered.

A familiar warmth flooded my waist at the single, growling command. A primal calling. It made me want to do exactly what he said, no matter what it led to. It was the same thrill as the night he chased me through the city.

I didn’t overthink it.

I just ran.

He didn’t follow me. He didn’t chase right away. He stayed firmly in place, a dangerous figure looming in the shadow of night.

It was meant to be a game the same way the first one had. It should’ve made me laugh or made me feel silly. At the very least, I should want answers, but I didn’t. Because it was the truth. I trusted him with my life. I’d run from him just as quickly as I’drun to him. And as much as it bothered me to admit to myself, I got off on it.

But why now? Why tonight?

I weaved through the brush and around trees that climbed high into the sky, keeping the fluffy skirt of my dress from catching on branches. I navigated roots and dead leaves with bare feet.

Lev insisted I didn’t wear any shoes. Or underwear, for that matter. The man had seen me naked, but even I gave him a look when he suggested I wear the dress, and only that. We might’ve been best friends for decades, but I still didn’t know what all went on in that head of his.

The full moon shined down from a clear sky. Most nights it stood as a solemn reminder of what I’d lost, but tonight it was a different feeling.

It felt like fate.

I didn’t stop running. Each light footfall took me deeper and deeper into the forest. I couldn’t explain the sensation that washed over me as I fled, but maybe…

Freedom.

I’d been a prisoner in my own life, then the first step out of the world I knew put me in a world of trouble. I’d been handed an ominous fate. And then it ended. The villain was slain. The world put right. I’d waded through one emotion after another, listless and purposeless. What now? What did I see for a future I wasn’t sure I’d get? Between the grief of losing and the guilt of surviving, I struggled to figure out what I wanted.

How did a woman who only knew how to survive learn how toliveinstead?

But without understanding how, I knew the answer I’d been searching for was here in this forest. In this chase where I was meant to finally be found.

I sucked in a sharp breath when I felt him close in, the lethal assassin in the dark. He was swift and deadly, but I wasn’t afraid. His hand wrapped around my throat, and I was pushed back. I moaned as my body was pressed against a tree, his touch possessive and full of gentle authority.

The masked assassin tore through my dress and corset before yanking them from my body. I couldn’t breathe as his silver eyes leisurely raked over my naked curves. His hand took the same path as his stare, touching me softly. I could’ve sworn my heart would break through my chest as he canted his head and brushed his thumb across my nipple.

He moved in close, the heat radiating off him. “Found you, little rebel,” he murmured, angling my head with one hand and squeezing. I didn’t need to see his face to know he was smirking at me.

I climbed up his body, tugging on the waistband of his pants. “You always do. Now, what are you going to do about it?”

My gasping breaths failed when he drove his hard length inside me without waiting. Bark scraped against my skin, but I hardly felt it through the devastating pleasure. I rocked back and forth, our skin slapping together. Every thrust was aimed to throw us over that earth-shattering edge. Silas pressed his masked face into my neck, and I dragged my fingernails down his cloaked back.

The intensity of being fucked after I was found couldn’t be overstated. I wouldn’t last long at all, and by the way he was slamming into me, he wouldn’t either.

“Oh, fuck,” I moaned, biting my bottom lip.

His hoarse voice came between grunts. “You’re so fucking tight and wet. Did you want to be fucked by a masked killer that much, little rebel?”